
I-95 Exclusive: How Could You Do That? – Mayor On Danbury’s Opioid Fund Allocation
Mayor Roberto Alves has announced that he’s awarding $170,000 in opioid settlement funds to 12 local organizations. This marks the first round of funding given out by the City of Danbury from the opioid legal settlements. So far, the city has received around $308,000 from these settlements.
Back in 2024, Mayor Alves set up a committee with staff from the Mayor’s Office, the Health & Human Services Department, and the Finance Department. Their goal? To figure out which local agencies are best positioned to use the funds for programs that address substance abuse, treatment and recovery, support services, and harm reduction in the Danbury area.
Mayor Alves joined us on the Thursday (1/16/25) edition of the I-95 Morning Show to discuss the distribution of the opioid settlement funds, sharing his thoughts on how these grants will support local efforts in combating substance abuse and providing recovery resources to the community.
Lou: Last night your office sent out a press release stating the City of Danbury has distributed some of the opioid lawsuit funds to different Hat City beneficiaries, can you talk a little bit about that?
Alves: "Absolutely, I’d love to. When we came into office, we started reviewing some of the city's funds to see where we could make a difference, and we knew about the opioid settlement money. There had been a class-action lawsuit, which many people were following. States were awarded funds, which were then distributed to communities, and Danbury had been sitting on hundreds of thousands of dollars before we took office—just sitting there, doing nothing with it. That was insane. How could that happen? Families in our community, and across the country, were impacted by the opioid crisis. It feels like everyone knows someone affected by this issue. To me, the settlement wasn’t enough to compensate for the suffering people have gone through. You can’t put a price on the lives lost, but the money was there, and it should have been put to good use. So, when we came in, we started evaluating which organizations were doing real preventative work or helping those struggling with addiction. It took some time for us to assess the situation, figure out how to distribute the funds fairly, and identify which organizations wanted to partner with us. In the end, we allocated nearly $180,000 to multiple organizations that are doing amazing work in this area."
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The following agencies have been awarded opioid settlement funds:
- Amos House: $10,000.00
- APEX: $20,000.00
- ARC: $10,000.00
- CIFC: $10,000.00
- CT Community for Addiction Recovery: $20,000.00
- CT Counseling Centers: $20,000.00
- Family & Children's Aid: $10,000.00
- Danbury Grassroots Academy: $10,000.00
- Housing Authority of the City of Danbury: $10,000.00
- MCCA: $20,000.00
- Salvation Army: $10,000.00
- Western CT Coalition: $20,000.00
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